QUICK UPDATE:

Were close on Coinpayments.net. We'll be in there soon.

Firstly:



I'm talking with Cointopay on exactly how the integration into merchant sites works and getting a good sales pitch together. The online stores aren't exactly falling over themselves to 'join the revolution'. There's an investment in integrating crypto into their websites, and also administration that they have no training on. It's a very hard sell.

Cointopay can also be used to facilitate the remittance service. It all needs to be ironed out.

I'm also speaking to First Swiss cards (https://www.firstswisscard.com/) about a KOBO card. This might be something for the future. We're probably too small at the moment for the transaction levels they require, but they seem to like the concept.

There's other stuff going on as well. Discussions and negotiations take time, so please bear with me.

Thanks. We're getting there. I'll do all I can to make it happen.

UPDATE:

Our first article. Hopefully more to follow:

http://us.newsbtc.com/changing-africa-remittance-with-kobocoin/

 

It would really help if you could share this via twitter or any other social media you're all using.

It would be great to get some help with those things, but people don't work for free. Making changes doesn't necessarily lead to an increase in trading volume. Trying to second guess the exchanges is a frustrating exercise.

Look at ArtByte (formerly AppleByte). Been around for over a year now. Great founder and dev (2 roles, 2 people), great media coverage (because they're dealing with the music industry), currently No.5 on CoinGecko for community (https://www.coingecko.com/en?sort_by=community_score), they have a twitter tipping bot, and a massive list of followers on social media (who are tipping each other regularly). And, it's also still mineable. And yet ArtByte market cap is less than Kobocoin at this time.

We're up there with some good names. I know we're not top 20 (yet) but we've steadily moved up the ranks and I'm hoping we'll continue to do so over the coming months




Most 'overnight' successes have actually been around for a long time when you research it. Even Darkcoin (now DASH) spent some months languishing before it experienced the kind of growth that I believe you're expecting from Kobocoin.
 

Sorry for the lack of updates. Had a few issues to resolve last week. I'm going to spend this week contacting online retailers and other services. I'm hoping I'll at least get a reply from one or two. I'll let you know how I get on.

UPDATE:

We are now on Cointopay
https://cointopay.com/integration.jsp

Twitter announcement
https://twitter.com/Cointopay/status/623601879151452160

Time to offer crypto integration services to African online retailers. The companies below are where we'll start.

Jumia
Kasoa
GoShop
OLX
Konga
Kaymu

Any more suggestions?

Also, last night I was contacted by a bitcoin news site (I'm not telling yet!). There should be an article on kobocoin coming out later this week. I'll post a link if/once it published.
 

UPDATE:

We are being added to Cointopay (https://cointopay.com/) in the next 24 hours.
 

Merchants who integrate Cointopay on their sites can be paid out in FIAT. This is a great step forward. Once we're listed I'll be chasing down the online merchants we discussed.

I'm also looking into the possibility of the Cointopay service helping with the remittance service we're planning.

Thanks, and I'm glad to see you're still with us

I agree with you (especially about the negative perception in being delisted), but we've been fighting that battle for some time now. It won't actually be better volume on Yobit, but we won't be delisted for a few slow days. We had a sustained increase in volume for a few days on Bittrex, but now it's slowed we're again threatened with delisting. I guess I'm preparing in case, at some point, volume does not exceed .2 BTC for seven days.

CoinToPay should be adding KOBO tomorrow (let's say sometime this week to be safe). We're constantly moving forward, but there's generally less exchange interest in PoS coins than PoW. I've looked into other methods of getting volume increased but other projects have had mixed results and there's no definite fix. Personally, I want to remain on bittrex and I'd like KOBO to be a traded coin (at some point - it's evolution), but right now we seem to be struggling to keep our listing. We are lucky to still have our Yobit listing as contingency. It might come to our rescue one day.

Bola is a Nigerian name . The listings in the screenshot are an example to show the transaction and address labelling feature of the wallet when it's being used, rather than random listings. In crypto we're used to what the mobile wallets look like. When someone (who's not heard of cryptocurrencies before) checks the app they'll be less confused about what they're looking at.

The signs are positive that we'll be on a payment gateway this week. If it happens then I can contact the online retailers we've discussed on this thread (and others) about integrating payments on their site. If we can achieve that for one of the retailers then we'll have a good marketplace for kobo users.

The remittance trial is still being worked out. There's a few choices being looked at for redeeming kobo at the receivers end. I can't give a date at the moment.

The yellow light is flashing again on the Bittrex listing. With the constant threat of being delisted I'm even wondering if KOBO is better off on Yobit. On yobit we'd have a decent volume and we'd still maintain our listings on coinmarketcap and all the relevant sites. I'm not sure becoming a traded coin will help the situation. It might increase participation, or it might not, or there might be a volume threshold for maintaining a traded coin listing that we also won't be able to maintain.

UPDATE:

The full list of African currencies supported by the v2.1.2 mobile wallet is shown below:

AOA   Angolan Kwanza
BWP   Botswanan Pula
DJF   Djibouti Franc
DZD   Algerian Dinar
EGP   Egyptian Pound
KES   Kenyan Shilling
LRD   Liberian Dollar
LSL   Lesotho Loti
LYD   Libyan Dinar
MAD   Moroccan Dirham
MZN   Mozambican Metical
NAD   Namibian Dollar
NGN   Nigerian Naira
RWF   Rwanda Franc
SCR   Seychelles Rupee
SDG   Sudanese Pound
SLL   Sierra Leonean Leone
SOS   Somali Shilling
STD   São Tomé & Príncipe Dobra
SZL   Swazi Lilangeni
TND   Tunisian Dinar
TZS   Tanzanian Shilling
UGX   Uganda Shilling
ZAR   South African Rand
ZMK   Zambian Kwacha
ZWD   Zimbabwe Dollar

My biggest irritation is that I couldn't get the Ghanaian Cedi (GHC) listed before the update. I've since found out that Ghana has changed their ticker from Ghana Cedi (GHC) to Ghana New Cedi (GHS). This will be added to the next update.

So, African currencies to be added to the next update (where possible) are:

ERN   Eritrean Nakfa
ETB   Ethiopian Birr
GHS   Ghanaian Cedi
GMD   Gambian Dalasi
GNF   Guinea Franc

The full list of currently supported (and unsupported) world currencies can be found here:
http://kobocoin.com/KOBO_Currencies.xls

I'll be making a full list for the website to give it a bit of bling (sorted by continent). For now, it'll just be links to the spreadsheet.

UPDATE:

We have an opportunity to become a traded coin on Bittrex. This means KOBO will be traded against all cryptos listed on Bittrex. With the low volume we're experiencing I'm not sure if it's wise at this time. There's also a cost involved that's not trivial.

Any comments?

UPDATE:

Kobocoin Android Wallet V2.1.2 is now released.

- Includes support for over 150 world currencies including BTC
- Minor layout changes

Please goto Google Play or Amazon Store and update your app.

Google Play
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tribesman.kobocoin_android_wallet

Amazon
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kobocoin-Wallet-BETA/dp/B00XR73N9S

I'm in the process of updating the screenshots for the new wallet.

The updated wallet has also been submitted to Blackberry World. I'm just waiting for it to be published. BlackBerry approval can take up to 7 days.

Thanks for the kind words and great support! We're still here!

A reminder

Micropayments, on a massive scale

One of the core features and selling points of kobo is that the naming of it's subdivisions is human friendly. This USP allows users to more easily trade at different levels depending on what they're buying or selling. The screenshots below demonstrate the massive scale of micropayments possible using the different kobo denominations.

KOBO




MANILLA (1000 MANILLA = 1 KOBO)




COWRIE (1000 COWRIE = 1 MANILLA)




MANSA (100 MANSA = 1 COWRIE)
Same as satoshi unit. Not yet displayed in the wallet.

Manilla and Cowrie have their own internal icon (manilla icon shown below):


With the ability to trade in local currency, it really now makes it a formidable micropayment tool.

Let's hope it doesn't take 10 years though!
 

Lol. I love rap, hip hop, and poetry. I'm just not a rapper! It would be sad, not funny.
 

NO!
 

UPDATE: (Screenshot heavy!)

I think I spoke too soon about no late nights. More android developer issues so I'm back to doing it myself again.  Anyways, I've added the exchange rate feature.

Below is the landing page showing Nigerian Naira (NGN) as the default currency.



The Exchange Rates menu item is enabled. If you press the wallet balance it also takes you to the exchange rates.



Exchange rates selection is as with other crypto wallets. Pin a currency to make it your default. KOBO price is taken from Cryptonator (we might be the first android wallet to use their service). Nigerian Naira is default in screenshot below.



Send/Receive in default currency



For now, the following African currencies are supported.

- Egyptian Pound (EGP)
- Kenyan Shilling (KES)
- Nigerian Naira (NGN)
- South African Rand (ZAR)

KENYAN SHILLING


SOUTH AFRICAN RAND


THINK GLOBAL, TRADE LOCAL

With the exchange rate feature added we can also start to push our 'Think global, Trade local' initiative. How it works:

1. Go to a supported nation.
2. Select the local currency as the default for your wallet
3. Trade with other local kobocoin users in local currency (we're already doing it with KOBO/GBP in London - amongst friends)

This means that Kobocoin users can trade in local currency for goods and services (P2P) wherever they are in the world. That's a simple statement with very big implications!

I'll be cleaning the code and uploading the update over the next few days to Play, Amazon, and BBWorld. If you want the apk before then to play with, PM me and I'll send you a link to it.

Over the last few days I've been upgrading the Abe servers and software. The wallets are syncing fine now with no workaround, but once in a while the Kobocoind daemon keeps falling over. I'm looking into this.

There's a few more things going on, but I'll leave it at that for now.
 

Some might say I'm Johnny no mates!!
 

LOL! My daughter gets upset when I use YOLO. I'm too old for smh, kmt, etc etc

I've been banging on about cryptos having to be more than just 'a coin', and usage needing to be a priority for years now. I hope kobo can make it happen!
 

Thanks for the feedback guys. So far it's 2-1 to stay with Bittrex.

How are we promoting this in Africa?

1. We've already had many enquiries and new users from Africa, but as said earlier, the 2 questions we're always getting asked are "what can I buy or do with them?" and "How do I cash out?".
2. We've been getting pricing for billboard advertising. We're thinking about intercity expressways and strategic placements at city road junctions. We want kobocoin to feel like part of the infrastructure.
3. We've also been getting pricing for ads in traditional press

I've started looking for suitable partners all over the continent. It's a challenge because many companies aren't aware of how to get started in crypto. This is why I'm pushing for KOBO to be part of payment gateways. Then I can speak to a number of online stores about accepting KOBO but being paid in FIAT (this is how some of the gateways work - how?? I need to investigate!).

On that front, I've just confirmed with Cointopay that we shall be part of their gateway from 20th July. Once we're on, I will start speaking to all the online retailers. I'm prepared to integrate the payment gateway myself if need be. This will mean that it's possible for the sites that do integrate the gateway to accept a number of cryptos, not just KOBO. I'm not too worried about that. It will be a step forward for every crypto involved, but at least KOBO will be there. I've also heard back from eDigicash. I have to provide API documentation for inclusion there so it may be some time for that to happen.

Once we have one site on board I believe I'll be able to convince other retailers to join up. If it costs them nothing, but increases their reach into the market I'm hoping they may be favourable to the proposal.

Then we can show users where their kobo can be used. At the moment there's people holding kobo with nowhere to use it. Not the best. That's why I'm making sure the exchange rate function is working. It would be nice for them to see how much the kobo they're holding is worth. At the moment new users are asking how much they're worth, and in some cases, what are they?? The price detail will help users see it as having a real value other than just being 'a new internet thing' or remittance token.

It might seem slow with the publicity, but I'd really like to have something solid to publicise. We are getting there. I've started looking at comparing KOBO with other African currencies e.g https://twitter.com/kobocoindev/status/618359316085669888/ -  I'll be doing a lot more of these to show how KOBO is doing against local FIAT.

It's still a long road. Kobocoin is 5 months old today (feels like 5 years in dev time!). At the risk of having you all run away, I see Skype and UBER as role models for Kobocoin. They've been around for ages building their brand, having ups and downs, and making moves. And look at them today. As long as we stay steadfast and keep putting one foot in front of the other so that each week we're a step forward from the previous week, then I'm sure we'll get there.

I'm looking forward to kobo being on a payment gateway.